Rod & Angelika Ragsdale: activities and projects in West Africa as well as those in Europe and in North America, sometimes. Including periodic news and information on their whereabouts, whatabouts, and just about anything else one might want to know about them if one was so inclined... and some things you might rather not know!

07 July 2005

Angelika's Back

Hey, Angelika arrived about a week ago and it has been constant movement since. We have not had one evening at home alone since she got back. Unfortunately for her, the sky has been relatively clear since she returned which meant that I was spending a lot of time doing tandem skydives for Skydive Oregon. About two weeks ago one of their main tandem guys from Australia went to Canada for a few days of holiday. When he tried to return, the US Customs agents stopped him and would not let him in. That means that we are down one of our main tandem instructors and we have tons of tandems lined up but not enough weekday tandem instructors. Needless to say that has got me hopping!

One of the more interesting jumps I made last week was with my nice, Melissa. She did a great job of arching (just like she was taught to do before the jump) and did a great job of flying the canopy to the right spot for a good landing. It was interesting and she even got a video of the jump. I was glad it worked out for her. She is only the fourth family member to have jumped out of a flying airplane. Her dad and my brother, Ray, was there to see it as was her mother, little brother and sister. She had a great time and I am afraid that she may get hooked. If she does I guess I will have some answering to do to her folks for it! Oh well, everybody has to make there own mark in this world, nobody else can do it for you.

Come this Sunday we are off to Trout Creek Bible Camp in south central Washington. We are part of a Kid’s Mission Camp where we will be talking to kids about what it is like to live in a war torn country and do ministry. We will be speaking about risk taking and how that relates to ministry in places like Côte d'Ivoire. Pray for us, if you are the type to do so, that this will be time well spent and that many of the kids we interact with will be challenged to look beyond their own little world to the world beyond them where life is often much more tenuous.

Just after the Kid’s Mission Camp we will be at Camp Tadmor for a women’s camp the weekend before the first high school camp begins. We are looking forward to spending time with kids (the women as well) from all over the Northwest and interaction with them. Again keep us in mind before the Lord.

Oh yes, I must mention something concerning the VW that I have been tooling about the Northwest in these days. The other day I was on my way home to see some of the cousins that came for their folk’s 50th wedding anniversary. It was about 19h30 and I was running down the freeway when I heard a thumping noise. I pulled over and found that there was a flap of tread that had detached itself from the rest of the tire and had decided to begin beating around in the wheel well. I thought, “No problem, I’ll just put on the spare and be on my merry way to see those cousins.” What I didn’t realize, until I tried to put it on the van, was that the spare I was carrying was from a Saab, a nice high performance alloy wheel. As nice as it was, it just didn’t fit. It had four bolt holes and the van had five bolts. There was no way to stretch or squeeze them to fit. I put the thumper back in its place and slowly thumped my way off of the freeway into the parking lot of an Albertson store and called my dad. I was only a few miles from home so it was not such a hardship though I certainly felt dumb. I am sure that the guy who sold me the van is looking all over for that nice alloy wheel for his Saab and must also be wondering why he has an extra VW Vanagon wheel floating about. Needless to say, that night I never saw those cousins! Moral of the story: Always check the spare when you purchase a car, even if you don’t have cousins.